Select Board Minutes

Minutes of the meeting of 2/20/19

Meeting Opened at: 4pm

Select Board Members Present: Carol Edelman, Chairperson, Kenneth Basler and Donald Coburn

Also in attendance: Steve Snyder, Peter Chait, Rebecca Wolin, George Cain, Dennis Lynch, Jon Sylbert,

Miscellaneous Items Reviewed:

• The Board reviewed the employee classifications research that Justin Cole and Melissa Noe put together, this will be continued to the next meeting as there were additional questions.  A letter has been drafted to give to the employees this will affect and the Board will also meet individually with them prior to the start date of July 1.
• New England Aquatics bill: Carol informed the Board that she spoke with the owner of New England Aquatics and in her estimation the remaining balance is due to them and was appropriated at town meeting 2 years ago.  Carol made a motion to pay them the $9,213.49 they are owed which is available in the special article.  The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.
• CART services: Carol reached out to the CART vendor to secure her services for the upcoming annual town meeting.  A letter will be sent to her requesting an estimate based on last year’s meeting.
• Broadband update: Kenn is working to put together a meeting with Peter Larkin of MBI.  MBI has additional information they would like the town to supply prior to coming out with their financial team (we are waiting on the necessary documents from MBI).  A meeting will likely be in 1 – 2 weeks.  Kenn will also follow up with Fiber Connect on the financial proposal  promised at last week’s meeting and with Baystate Municipal Accounting Group on the consultant report they were preparing.
• A motion was made to approve the minutes from January 10; the motion was seconded.  Don disagreed with this, requested that both sets be released and inquired about the process.  Email opinions from the AG’s office and town counsel were reviewed which advised that minutes (only 1 set) may be approved by a majority.  The motion passed 2 – 1 with Don voting in the negative.  A motion was then made to approve the minutes of February 6^th ; the motion was seconded.  Don again expressed his displeasure. Don was asked to leave the meeting as Carol felt he was being abusive and rude.  Don declined.  The motion passed 2 – 1 with Don voting in the negative.  A motion was made to approve the minutes of February 13; the motion was seconded.  The motion passed 2 – 1 with Don voting in the negative.
• Don made a motion that the Board direct Melissa Noe to not use the system of sending emails to herself and blind carbon copying other Boards on matters of town business.  M. Noe was asked the reason behind doing this which she explained was to avoid any potential Open Meeting Law violations if a recipient were to reply to all. She provided a written opinion from the Attorney General as well as a verbal acknowledgment from counsel supporting this.  A board member did express concerns about possible situations that could be created by changing the method but ultimately the motion was seconded and passed unanimously. 
• Steve Snyder was present to answer any questions the Board may have with regard to the Lake Garfield Working Group’s request for a total of $55k for FY20 ($5k annually for continued lake monitoring and $50k for weed control).  Steve was asked the status of the data the Board and Finance Committee requested at the last meeting; Steve will work on providing a summary.  Steve also presented a letter to the Board about the pending 319 grant which we applied for last year but did not get.  The LGWG is proposing that Dennis Lynch write and resubmit the grant for this year.  Dennis estimated approximately $1,300 - $1,400 to rewrite the grant and he will find out if the grant requires any matching funds.
• It was suggested that another joint Select Board/Finance Committee meeting be set since the Fin Comm was unable to deliberate today as their meeting wasn’t posted in time.  The next joint meeting will be on March 7^th at 5pm.  The Boards plan to enter into executive session at some point during this meeting to consider a real estate purchase.

A motion was made to adjourn the meeting at: 5:18pm

Submitted by:

Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant

Approved by:

Monterey Select Board

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Select Board Members

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Town Clerk